It turns out I can bake!

We watch a lot of cooking competitions, and the chefs always say "I'm not  pastry chef."  One time one of the judges responded, "Neither is my grandma. But she can bake a pie."

Deserts seem to be a specialty that not everybody has the patience for. The main difference that I have noticed is that baking is an exact science. You can't just put a dash of this, some of that, and a couple eggs and hope it turns out. Cooking savory food is much more forgiving. You can taste as you go along and adjust based on what you like.

I think that could be what scars some people away. My wife likes to bake. There was a time when she denied it. But after a few years of building a reputation for always bringing delicious baked goods to parties and tailgates, there was no denying it any more.

I used to say that I was her sous chef. Now I do 90% of the cooking, so I started to say she was my pastry chef. But recently I decided to surprise her by baking what were described as basically cinnamon-sugar donuts in muffin form. I knew she would love them!

I gave a link to the recipe in my previous post. The interesting parts for me were combining butter and sugar with a hand mixer until it turned fluffy. It shouldn't come as a surprise when using two delicious ingredients like sugar & butter ... but that fluffy stuff is pretty tasty!

Like many baking recipes, I mixed the wet ingredients separate from the dry ingredients. Then you need to combine them gradually. In this instance, they were very specific to add dry, wet, dry, wet, and then dry. I followed all their instructions to a tee and they turned out perfectly.

So don't be afraid to bake! They give you the entire playbook if you just have the confidence to try it, and the patience to see it through. I may be inspired to do some more baking in the upcoming weeks. Some of you may know that my wife is with child. She isn't too excited about me grilling meat at the moment (bummer for me). But she is usually in the mood for something sweet. So I may just have to take over as the pastry chef too.